In order to prevent leakage of lubricating grease in a rolling bearing and to prevent entry of foreign matter into the bearing, a rubber seal is used to seal the opening at each end of an annular space defined between the outer race and the inner race of the bearing.
When mounting the rubber seal, a fixing arrangement shown in FIG. 3 is ordinarily used. This fixing arrangement includes a thick-walled portion 12 formed at the radially outer portion of a rubber seal 10 reinforced with a metal core 11 and pressed-fitted in a seal groove 22 formed in the radially inner surface of the outer race 21 so that the thick-walled portion 12 does not separate from the seal groove.
But since the fixing arrangement for the rubber seal 10 shown in FIG. 3 is structured to prevent rotation of the rubber seal 10 by the elastic contact between the inner periphery of the seal groove 22 and the thick-walled portion 12, it is difficult to stably fix the rubber seal in position. If the starting/turning torque is large, the rubber seal 10 may rotate together with the rotary member. Thus this fixing arrangement cannot be used for a bearing with lip seals which encounters large rotational resistance.
Thus, with a bearing with seal lips which encounters large rotational resistance, as shown in FIG. 4, a cylindrical bent piece 13 is provided at the radially outer portion of the reinforcing metal core 11 and the radially outer portion of the metal core 11 is pressed into the seal groove 22 by caulking the bent piece 13, thereby fixing the rubber seal 10 in position. But these fixing steps are difficult and extremely troublesome.